Meddling with Marauders
by HeyMrsPotter
Summary: Dangerous things have happened to wizards and witches who meddle with time. Falling in love with Sirius Black was a dangerous thing.
1. Prologue

_Prologue._

"It's Time," Hermione whispered. "_Time._"

She stared at the grotesque figure; the baby's head on a man's body, for a second longer before tearing her eyes away, looking frantically around the room. Time was valuable, and there had to be something in there that could help them escape from the nearing Death Eaters.

That was when she saw them: the Time-Turners. But there was something wrong with them. The counter they lay on tipped suddenly, as though an invisible force had knocked it over, and the collection fell almost to the floor. _Almost _because before they could get there, the counter was upright and they were back in their place. Hermione watched as the counter tipped and the necklaces fell again. They were stuck in an endless cycle of falling and falling again.

All of them…except one.

One Time-Turner lay haphazardly on the floor, right next to Harry's left foot. Of course, he hadn't noticed it; he and Neville were still transfixed on the strange man-baby. She ducked down and grabbed it, opening her mouth to tell Harry of her discovery. However, the words didn't come, for she was interrupted by a crashing sound and a scream that had come not from her still-open mouth, but from the distance.

_From Ron._

Harry called out for their friends and Hermione yelled Harry's name to alert him to the fact that the Death Eater had managed to remove the bell jar from his head, and was now flailing his arms around narrowly missing Harry.

Harry pointed his wand at the odd figure, his words forming the beginning of a spell, but Hermione grabbed his arm in disbelief.

"You can't hurt a baby!" she scolded. Harry readied himself to argue but the approaching footsteps stopped him. He ran toward the exit, yelling for Hermione and Neville to follow. Hermione pocketed the Time-Turner before running after the two boys.

Fear and adrenaline coursed through Hermione as they raced through the dark corridor of the Department of Mystery, as Harry dragged her into one of the offices to escape from yet more of Voldemort's followers. Their freedom from the Death Eaters was short –lived, however, as two of them burst into the room before Hermione had a chance to finish casting the colloportus spell on the door. She, Harry, and Neville were violently thrown backwards. Hermione did not see where Neville and Harry had landed, for a shower of books fell on her as soon as she impacted with the case, causing every cell in her body to ache.

"WE'VE GOT HIM! IN AN OFFICE OFF-" one of the men began, but Hermione was too quick with her silencing spell as she struggled to her feet once more.

Harry hit the other Death Eater with an excellent body-bind hex and Hermione couldn't help but congratulate him. Or so he had tried to, but the silenced man had taken advantage of her momentary distraction. She saw the swooshing action he made with his wand before everything turned black.

**A/N-Hello, dear readers! Welcome to my new story. **  
><strong>Just an FYI, this story will be fairly AU, it will disregard some canon details about the Marauders in the later chapters.<strong>


	2. Too Little, Too Late

Pain.

Her whole body was pain. There were no other feelings or sensations. She opened her eyes and even that tiny action hurt. One look at the ceiling told her she was in the Hospital Wing; she had been there more times than she cared to count.

"Hermione?" a timid voice came from her left hand side. She did not need to look to know that it was Ron. "Hermione, are you okay?"

She gave the smallest nod of her head and heard Ron breathe a sigh of relief before calling out, "Madame Pomfrey! Madame Pomfrey, she's awake!"

The stern matron came out of her office immediately, pulling her wand out of the front of her apron and mumbling about 'teenagers thinking they can duel adults and not come out of it worse for wear.' Hermione heard her footsteps approach the bed she lay in and then stop, Madame Pomfrey's irritable face appearing over her.

"Miss Granger, I'm going to need you to sit up in order to give you your pain relief potion. It will undoubtedly hurt, you have no broken bones, heaven knows how not, but that was a nasty jinx you were hit with. The potion will take effect as soon as you drink it, so no time like the present!" And with that, she pulled Hermione's arm around her neck and heaved her into a sitting position. Hermione gritted her teeth in agony, a tear rolling down her cheek. She willed her mouth to open and let the matron pour a foul-smelling burnt orange coloured potion down her throat.

As promised, the pain instantly dulled. Hermione's body was extremely weak and she felt more exhausted than she had ever felt in her life, but she hurt less and for that, she could have kissed Madame Pomfrey. She settled on a quiet 'thank you' before collapsing back into the soft pillows.

Madame Pomfrey turned the corners of her mouth up into a small smile for Hermione before her usual stern expression returned. "There's more where that came from, and another nine you'll have to take throughout the day. Now, however, sleep is the best medicine for you."

With that, she retreated back into her office, mumbling once again. As soon as her door clicked shut, Hermione turned to face Ron for the first time since waking.

"Where's Ha-" she began, because although the beds in the Hospital Wing were almost all full, she could not see her other best friend. The state of Ron's arms stopped her question, however. Deep welts covered him from wrist to shoulder. They were a pale pink shade, which suggested that they were currently under Madame Pomfrey's excellent supervision, but looked dreadful nonetheless.

"Your arms!" she gasped. "What happened?"

"Brains," Ron replied, as if this fully explained the matter. When Hermione raised her eyebrows, he added, "Remember there was a tank of them in one of the rooms we went in? We ended up in there again after you'd been cursed. The Death Eaters hit me with this weird spell, made me go all funny, and I summoned them from the tank. Those tentacles coming from them wrapped themselves around my arms." He shrugged. "Madam Pomfrey said it was something to do with thoughts leaving deep scars. She's been putting this lotion on that seems to be working though."

"And Harry? Where's Harry?" Hermione asked now that she knew Ron was alright, holding her breath for his answer.

"He's with Dumbledore. Reckon he'll be a while…" he trailed off and picked at a thread on the sheet covering him, and Hermione knew in that moment that there was something he was not telling her.

"Ron? Ron, what's happened? What aren't you telling me? Harry is okay isn't he?"

"Physically, he's fine. It's just, er… Lupin brought us all here, to make sure we were alright, y'know?" He gestured to the other beds, where Ginny, Neville and Luna were sleeping. "Madame Pomfrey insisted they rested here for a bit, she said they can go when they wake up but we've got to stay here longer…"

"Ron Weasley, tell me what is going on this instant!" Hermione demanded sitting up as much as her ribs would allow.

"It's Sirius, Hermione. Sirius is gone… Bellatrix hit him with the killing curse and he fell through that veil thing. He's dead."

His words hit Hermione like a ton of bricks. Sirius could not be dead; Ron must be mistaken. Maybe the Death Eater's spell or the brains were still confusing him. That had to be it. Life would not be so cruel to take Sirius away from Harry after they had known each other for such a short time.

"No," she said firmly. "That's not right, you must still be confused, Ron. I'll have Madame Pomfrey come and take another look at you."

Ron shook his head and slowly got up from his bed and made his way over to Hermione's. He perched himself on the edge of it and took her hand. Even in the bright early morning light that filled the Hospital Wing he looked pale. "I wish I was. You should have seen Lupin when he told me…" he paused and shook his head as if trying to rid himself of the memory. "Harry's been with Dumbledore for ages…well over an hour. What will we say when we see him, Hermione?"

She shrugged feebly, ignoring the ache that the action caused in her chest. For once Hermione did not have the answer. Tears fell silently down her face as she accepted the horrible truth; Sirius had gone.

She freed her hand from Ron and wiped her nose on her sleeve in an unladylike fashion, idly noticing her clothes were unchanged, but no longer covered in the dust and grime from the rooms in the depth of the Department of Mysteries. It was undoubtedly the work of Madame Pomfrey, who would never have let Hermione lie in one of her beds covered in filth. Ron awkwardly patted Hermione on the back in what she knew was meant to be a comforting action, and though it caused a spasm of pain each time, she didn't protest.

They sat together that way for a while longer, in which time Madame Pomfrey visited Neville, Luna and Ginny's beds. She returned to her office, content that the three were sleeping, but with a silent disapproving glare at Ron and Hermione for being awake.

Shortly after, the Hospital Wing doors swung open and a forlorn-looking Harry entered.  
>Hermione gasped, and she and Ron both exclaimed, "Harry!<p>

"Oh, Harry, I'm so sorry…" Hermione used Ron's leg to lean on and try to push herself off the bed but he pushed her back down as Harry bolted forward and sat on the brown armchair between his friends' beds. Ron stood up and returned to his own bed.

"Don't get up, Hermione. How are you? That spell you got hit with looked horrible, I thought you were…" Harry trailed off and hung his head.

"I'm fine, Madame Pomfrey is giving me a potion that's helping. Never mind me, how are you? Ron told me about Si-"

"Stop," Harry cut her off. "Please, don't. I don't want to talk about him."

"Okay, Harry. But you'll have to sometime," she warned him. "Don't just bottle everything up, please."

She knew that the last thing Harry needed was her nagging, but the memories of the way he had been way back in the summer holidays when he had finally been allowed to join them at Grimmauld place were still fresh in her head. Harry keeping things tohimself never ended well.

"Hermione's right, mate. I don't think any of us want another year of you shouting at us every five minutes." Ron added, trying to lighten the mood.

Harry gave a non-committal shrug of his shoulders and Hermione said nothing more on the matter. A silence fell over the group for a long time, in which Ron fell asleep. It was finally broken by the hospital wing doors swinging open, followed by a squat figure being levitated through them. Professor Snape and Dumbledore followed the figure, the latter with his wand stretched out in front of him. Hermione shrunk down a little further in her bed, and she saw Harry out of the corner of her eye leaning back a little into the curtain that was gathered behind his chair. She noticed Dumbledore glance over to their beds and give the tiniest of winks before turning back to Professor Snape.

"Severus, please fetch Madame Pomfrey and tell her that I have located Dolores. She seems uninjured for the most part but I suspect she will need a calming potion when the stunning spell lifts. I do wish she hadn't fought so much against me helping her…"

Hermione knew she ought to feel relief that Umbridge had been saved from the angry centaurs, or even guilty that it had been her fault they had taken her in the first place, but a loud voice in her head told her that the wretched woman had gotten everything she deserved.

She and Harry watched Dumbledore lower Umbridge on to an empty bed at the far end of the room. Madame Pomfrey joined them, and Hermione could have sworn she heard her ask Dumbledore in a low whisper if waking her up was necessary. When the stunning spell was lifted, Umbridge immediately began to struggle, yelling about half-breeds and the Minister for Magic and demanding she be given her wand. It took both Dumbledore and Snape to restrain her long enough for Madam Pomfrey to pour the golden calming potion into her mouth, and thankfully it took effect immediately. She slumped back onto the pillows and to Hermione's amusement, began snoring louder than Ron.

She turned to Harry to pass comment on the noise, and was surprised to see him slouched in the armchair, fast asleep. He looked uncomfortable, and his troubled thoughts were evident in the way he was frowning and his forehead was lined even in slumber, but Hermione did not wake him to tell him to at least climb into one of the spare beds. An uncomfortable sleep was better than none after all.

Hermione rested her head back on her pillow, taking shallow breathes to try and ease the lingering pain in her ribs, and before long her eyes became too heavy to keep open. She closed them and succumbed to the exhaustion she had been trying to fight since she first woke up.

* * *

><p>A loud snore from Ron woke Hermione up with a start. She looked over to his bed to see him lying on his back, his head turned towards her and his mouth wide open. In the seat between their beds, Harry was still sleeping, too. Hermione hadn't intended to fall asleep but the exhaustion from the days' events had finally caught up to her. She turned on her side slowly, trying to get herself comfortable enough to go back to sleep, but something dug into her pocket at her hip and she quickly turned back.<p>

She reached into her pocket, and realised as soon as her fingers brushed the hard metal object exactly what had caused her discomfort. She pulled the stolen Time-Turner out and held it in both hands after scanning the room to check Madam Pomfrey wasn't there. How could she have forgotten about it? So much had happened through the night; it was natural that she had pushed it to the back of her mind, especially with the curse she had suffered and Sirius…

Sirius! She glanced at her wrist and was dismayed to see her watch missing. A frantic search through the drawers of her bedside table led her to the silver wristwatch, which told her it was almost lunchtime.

She was too late.

When Hermione had been given a Time-Turner in her third year, Professor McGonagall had spent a great deal of time explaining the rules and risks of time travel. She had shared plenty of horror stories to scare Hermione into only ever using it for her studies, and at the time Hermione had found it preposterous that she would ever consider using it for anything else. Now, however, Hermione was cursing herself that she had missed her opportunity to use it to save Sirius. Five hours, Professor McGonagall had told her; that was the furthest amount of time a person could go back with using a Time-Turner. Any longer than that and there was too high a risk that one could change significant events in time, or to the time traveller themselves. The fact had come as a result of Hermione asking the obvious question of why no-one had used the devices to go back and stop Voldemort in his first rise to power.

It had been well over five hours since Sirius died, and though Hermione had no clue what she would have done to prevent his death when the idea first occurred to her, she felt annoyed with herself nonetheless. A fresh wave of injustice washed over her in the quiet Hospital Wing, it was awful for Harry to lose Sirius after such a short time with him. She wished she had remembered the Time-Turner as soon as she'd woken the first time, and at least had the chance to try and save Sirius.

She shoved her watch and the time turner back in the bedside table and slammed the drawer closed in frustration, vowing to put it in the bottom of her trunk and forget about it as soon as she could. The slamming sound made Ron jump slightly, and mumble something about brains before he rolled over and began to snore again.


	3. Opportunity Arises

Silent tears rolled down Hermione's face as she listened to the Phoenix song. It was everywhere. It hung in the air as heavily as grief did. Grief for Dumbledore, who couldn't possibly be dead. But Harry had seen it happen, and so it must be true.

It all happened so fast. One minute Hermione had been in the library, determined to find out who the illustrious Half-Blood Prince was, the next Harry was leaving to find a Horcrux with…

Everything had changed and barely four hours had passed.

_Barely four hours. _

Hermione sat up abruptly. "Harry, how long ago did you get back?" She chose her words carefully so as not to give away too much information about Harry's monumental task to the group.

Harry glanced at his watch, "I dunno. About an hour or so. Why?"

With not another word to the group, Hermione leapt out of the hard plastic chair she had been sitting on and ran out of the Hospital Wing doors, ignoring the numerous calls of her name.

_There was still time. _

She reached the portrait of the Fat Lady in record time. "_Quid Agis!_" she gasped, and the picture swung open far too slowly.

_She wouldn't be too late this time._

In her thankfully empty dormitory, Hermione threw open the lid of her trunk and delved into the bottom of it. Finally she found the item she sought. _The stolen Time-Turner._

She had promised herself that she would only ever use it if an emergency arose. Surely the death of the greatest wizard ever known could be classified as such? She could fix it. She could stop Snape, tell Dumbledore to leave, do _anything _that would mean he was still alive. She had been too late to save Sirius but this time would be different.

Mind made up, she ran back down the stairs, ignoring the Fat Lady's tuts of annoyance. She needed to be close to the Astronomy Tower, but somewhere that she would be out of sight so as not to alarm anyone who might have been around three hours ago. That was how she came to find herself in the same Entrance Hall broom cupboard that she and Harry had hidden in three years ago.

She took the stolen pendant out of her pocket as she sat down on a chest containing practice Quidditch balls.

"Here goes nothing…" she whispered to herself as she turned the minute hourglass three times. The all-too-familiar sensation of flying backwards engulfed her, and she squeezed her eyes tightly, waiting for the sensation to pass. Had it always taken this long?

Finally, Hermione felt like the world had stopped spinning. She tucked the Time-Tuner safely in her pocket, pressed an ear to the cupboard door, and listened. It was silent. Three hours ago the Death Eaters would have not yet arrived. She knew that the past version of herself would have been waiting outside of Snape's office as Harry had instructed her to. She cursed herself again for believing that he was going to help fight the Death Eaters.

She slowly pulled down the door handle until it clicked gently and she pushed the door open a fraction to peer into the Entrance Hall. A voice made her quickly close it again.

"…had to take poor Bertram Aubrey to the hospital wing, head is twice its normal size! One day I'll be able to teach a Charms lesson with the sixth years and not have Potter and Black mess it up! Rest assured I'll be speaking to Headmaster Dumbledore about this."

Hermione pressed her ear to the door a little harder. She thought she had heard _Potter _and _Black, _but there was only one Potter in sixth year, and certainly no-one by the name of Black or…Aubrey? The voice had been talking about teaching a Charms lesson but it wasn't the unmistakeable high pitched tones of Professor Flitwick.

She chanced a glance out of the door again to see two figures retreating into the Great Hall, one that was undoubtedly Professor Slughorn, the other a tall, slim built man whom Hermione did not recognise.

She closed the door again and resumed her seat on the Quidditch chest. Who were they talking about? And who was the man with Professor Slughorn?

She looked around the small cupboard hoping to find some answers, but the spider-less cobwebs were no use to her, nor were the broomsticks they were woven on to. The floor was dusty but otherwise bare. She had no choice but to continue with her original plan of stopping Snape. She would wait until he had convinced her future self that he was going to help, and then stun him. Full of fresh determination, and putting her questions out of her mind, she quietly stepped out of the cupboard.

The entranceway was empty again; chattering and the smell of sausages from the Great Hall told her that most of the school were having dinner. She quickly slipped past the open doors, keeping her head down, and headed down the stairs to Snape's office in the dungeons. She faintly heard a loud whooping noise from the Hall behind her and quickened her pace.

Much to Hermione's relief, she met no students on the stairs, and it wasn't until she was halfway along the dimly lit corridor that she heard a sound at all.

"…off for dinner now, the House Elves have promised sausages and mashed potato would be on the menu, and you know it's my favourite. Are you sure you won't join me, Severus?"

It was the unmistakeable voice of Albus Dumbledore, but how was that possible? She had only gone back three hours; Harry and Dumbledore should have left by now. She pulled out the Time-Turner as if it would somehow tell her what was going on, and was horrified to see a long, thin crack right down the hourglass in the centre.

The door up ahead that led to Snape's office clicked shut and Hermione darted behind a nearby suit of armour, not realising it was already occupied.

"OI!"

She turned to the side and saw the trademark wicked grin of Peeves the Poltergeist. She was done for.

"Sneaky student! Who are you hiding from?" He floated up and hovered above her head.

"Peeves," she whispered desperately, "please shush, this is really important. I can't be seen."

"Can't be seen, eh? I bet you especially wouldn't want to be caught sneaking by…PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE!" he shouted the last two words and then whizzed down the corridor cackling.

It was too late; Dumbledore was already heading for the suit that Hermione was hiding behind. She would have to abandon her plan to stun Snape, tell Professor Dumbeldore the truth, and hope that he believed her. She took a deep breath and then stepped out from behind the armour, ready to face her Headmaster.

Even in the faint light cast by the flickering torches, Hermione knew something wasn't right. The Dumbledore that was approaching her with a confused expression on his face looked at least ten years younger. His hair was heavily streaked with white but there was an auburn hint to it that Hermione had never seen before. His eyes twinkled from behind his glasses as usual, but there were far fewer wrinkles around them. He reached into his pocket and slowly brought out his wand, and Hermione noticed that his hand was no longer black and shrivelled.

She looked down at the cracked Time-Turner in her hand before lifting her head again, and speaking to Dumbledore.

"I think I'm in trouble, Professor."


End file.
